Travel dilemmas…

Travelling is a key part of my life, having worked in the airline industry for so long, it’s just in my blood. I guess this makes me tolerant of all sorts of challenges…. airlines delays, lost baggage, adaptor plugs etc etc – I tend to take so much for granted as just part of the experience…But this trip… just seems to be getting more complicated and my tolerance levels are being tested..OK – so I choose to be in a city where security is currently front of mind… I have no problems with that! I can handle being evacuated from tube stations, I can handle access to certain areas being difficult, I allow extra time to achieve common daily activities…I can even handle rain and hail storms in summer (in Sydney that used to be common place) but here’s what I can’t handle:

hotels that don’t turn their hot water on before 8am

bad coffee

constant excuses that blame large events (eg. we don’t have any irons available because Wimbeldon is on!!)AND… here’s my current pet hate…

limited internet access!

Internet speed in the UK is about 4 times faster than I can get at home in Australia… it’s just brilliant… but why? why? is wireless not available readily in a city with 20 million people?I’ve just been wandering around – occasionally I can pick-up a signal… and I refuse to go to Starbucks…Why do the hotels have wireless routers that are only available when you hang out the window? Or LAN connections that charge you for 24 hours every time you login? So – I found CISCO in Covent Garden – they’d set-up a free network as a marketing activity… interesting – considering the majority of people in Covent Garden are tourists! And the Apple store in Regent St had free access but… I can’t set-up a work station in either of these venues…I’m not going to sit in an internet cafe … I need to use my laptop, I want to work in my time frames, I don’t want to drink bad coffee – I just want reliable access!!!!Surely, that’s not too much to ask?

As an avidd supporter of online technologies as a learner enabler, it’s a blunt reminder that unless I have access… I have nothing…. sure, I can draft offline… but at some point, I still need to connect to upload.If I want to check learning sites for activities, read the latest blog updates, I still need access… So – the learning divide is not just about outback or regional areas – I can be in one of the world’s mega cities !It just drives me nuts…!!!